Saturday 23 July 2016

Shumenov.. "Lebedev is holding his WBA title hostage."

It has been more than a month since WBA regular cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov (16-2, 10 KOs) appealed to the WBA to either declare a purse bid for a fight between him and WBA Super champion Denis Lebedev, or remove Lebedev's claim on the title..  At the end of March the WBA issued an ultimatum that the winner of the Lebedev vs Victor Emelio Ramirez WBA/IBF unification fight in May must fight Shumenov within 120 days of the Shumenov’s May 21 stoppage victory over Junior Wright. However word has it that Lebedev’s promoter Andrei Ryabinsky supposedly has a deal in place for Ledebev to defend the IBF title he acquired in May first..
The Shumenov camp firmly accuse Lebedev of holding his version of the WBA title “hostage," leaving themselves unable to schedule any dates for Beibut until the WBA resolves..   Shumenov doesn't quite understand why a fighter with such a proven track record as Lebedev's is unwilling to step forward to the challenge..    Meanwhile WBO champion Krzysztof Glowacki of Poland has stepped to the plate to defend against the hugely avoided Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk in Gdansk on September 17th, Usyk aiming to beat the record of Evander Holyfield and secure a world championship  inside of 11 fights..   The final piece of the cruiserweight riddle sees Liverpools newly crowned WBC champion Tony Bellew show interest in a BJ Flores match, in a first defence. Bellew recently made it very clear that following the Povetkin drug scandal, he would never consider travelling to Russia to fight Lebedev or Grigory Drodz..

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